***

Li couldn’t help his excitement as he ran through the halls, ignoring the call of his instructor. He knew his mother was meeting with another family today and he wasn’t supposed to bother her. But he was sure that he could be forgiven, just this once. 

The marks were still burning slightly, not in pain but with a warmth that felt alive, like holding his hands too close to the hearth during winter. They pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, and Li lifted his wrists again to check, half-afraid they’d faded away. But the sigils remained: thin, curling shapes that looked almost like handwriting, though no one had ever taught him letters like these. He wondered what they said. 

His instructor had noticed the four around his neck first, and it was then he noticed the four around each of his wrists. Four. More than both his mother and brother. Did that mean anything? Did it mean he would be a great cultivator? Was he stronger already, or would that come later?

The questions swirled and collided inside his chest like wind in a dry field, but none of them slowed his feet. He had to find his mother. He wanted her to see.

The inner halls of the residence were quiet, their silence padded by thick carpets and the hush that always followed important guests. Li’s sandals slapped lightly over the polished wood, leaving behind a trail of small, damp marks where he’d run too fast and ran right through the puddles that covered the estate from the rain. He slowed as he turned the final corner, his heart feeling ready to fly away. 

“Ma!” Li rushed into the room, seeing his mother sitting with another man and woman he didn’t recognize. Wait, he did know the man. Li scrambled to clean up his posture. “This one greets Ascendant Lingyao.”

“Well, well, I did not expect to see two Initiates in one day.” The man’s voice was calm, even amused, but not unkind. Li froze halfway into his bow, suddenly aware of the rainwater soaking into the hem of his tunic and the way his damp hair clung to his face. His mother’s eyes found him immediately, and though her expression remained composed, Li recognized the slight lift of her brow and the tilt of her head as she told him to sit. It was the look she gave him when she wanted him to remember something. Manners, usually.

His mother was wearing a robe in their family colors, the rich purple glinting faintly where the lamplight touched the silk, trimmed in folded cream that resembled parchment and soft gold threads that shimmered like distant stars. The other woman, who looked slightly older than his mother, was wearing soft-colored robes that reminded Li of flower petals left in the rain. Pale green and purple folded over one another like layers of mist, and the darker part near the bottom looked like the sky right before a storm. 

“My my, this is a day for surprises then,” the strange woman spoke and Li bowed his head, unsure what they were talking about. Did someone else get their mark too? “Although given the age your first son got his marks, I suppose it’s not strange to see your youngest son follow, Void Adept Shengluo.”

“Thank you, Ascendant Yunhe.” Li watched as his mother bowed, struggling to contain his excitement. He wanted to show her all the rings! “It’s possible the two boys affected each other. Li did attend Initiate Luoyin’s birthday a few days ago.”

“Yao got marks too?” Li couldn’t help as he looked up, eyes wide. The excitement bubbled again, stronger now, cresting past the edge of his restraint. “He didn’t say anything!”

“His marks were just discovered today, Li,” His mother’s voice remained level, but the softest smile played at the corner of her mouth. “And it will be a long time before you two will be able to train together.”

“Awh, but why?”

“He is from a branch family,” Ascendant Yunhe chuckled, but Li didn’t like the sound of it. It was a condescending sound, one he often heard from Wei’s father, Master Taiheng. “Just because he has marks young doesn’t mean we should expect much. The Luoyin branch has been dry for decades. Him and his mother are merely luck.”

“We–”

“Take that back!” Li demanded, standing before his mother could stop him. His chest was already full of heat, not from the marks but from something sharper. His cheeks flushed, his fists balled at his sides, and for a moment the sigils on his wrists glowed faintly, as if echoing the thrum of his indignation.

The woman’s brow lifted. “Oh? He has a temper too. Charming.”

“Li.” His mother’s voice didn’t rise, but it cut clean through the air like a silk ribbon drawn tight. He turned to her, breath quick, pulse loud in his ears. Her eyes were calm. “That is not how we speak in front of guests.”

“But she insulted Yao.” he muttered, not quite sitting, not quite staying up. “She said him and his mother don’t matter.”

“That is not what she said.”

“She meant it.”

Ascendant Yunhe laughed again, but softer now. “You’re protective of your friends. I suppose that’s a good quality in a cultivator. Though I imagine your temper will be sanded down in time.”

Li didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure what sanding meant, but he didn’t like the sound of it. The clink of a tea cup silenced everyone and Li turned to look at Ascendant Lingyao. The older man was still seated, long fingers steady around the small porcelain handle. His gaze did not rest on Li, but hovered instead on the slow curl of steam rising from the cup, as if considering it more carefully than anything else in the room.

“Temper is not necessarily a weakness,” he said finally, and his voice was so quiet that Li leaned forward to hear it, though he did not even notice doing so. “It’s a kind of fire. Wild, at first. Dangerous, perhaps. But fire, when disciplined, becomes heat for a forge. It strengthens. It purifies. It remakes.

“And you overstep, Xuefeng. That ‘lucky’ girl reached Golden Core IV in only two months, despite her mark appearing at nineteen. Even if her son had not gained a mark, that alone is worth acknowledging,” Ascendant Lingyao continued, pausing to take another sip of his tea as his gaze finally lifted toward the woman across from him. “Instead of using words like luck or being concerned with a dry branch, you should be reflecting on how your own branches are tended. A cultivator should not mistake the stillness of winter for the absence of spring.”

Ascendant Yunhe did not smile this time. She held the cup gently between her hands, though her fingers no longer rested as loosely around the rim. Something in her mouth tightened, and while she did not answer immediately, Li saw that she did not sip her tea again.

“We should continue our discussion,” Li noticed as his mother spoke again, and she smiled at him kindly as she spoke. “Go show your brother, and we will celebrate properly once I am done here.”

“Yes Mother,” Li bowed as he stood, but he didn’t go far once he left the room. Instead, he only moved slightly down the hall, reaching the point where he knew the barrier between rooms was thin. He didn’t like Ascendant Yunhe, she reminded him of Yao’s cousin Feng, and he wanted to know why his mother was with a nasty woman like that. 

“I suppose that explains the Night-Devouring Court’s movements around Taiheng. They failed to kill the boy’s mother and when they didn’t repeat the attempt, I assumed they had given up,” Ascendant Yunhe’s voice had a different tone, one that was much more serious and Li couldn’t help his frown. He had never heard of the Night-Devouring Court. “They will likely go after the boy.”

“Zhiyao is aware of the danger. We cannot ignore the movements of the demonic sects, even though I know Zhiyao is more than capable of protecting his disciples,” his mother’s voice was calm, but there was a weight beneath it Li wasn’t used to hearing. Something harder, older. Not cold, but measured in a way that reminded him of how she always tested the water before she let him bathe in winter. “Perhaps Disciple Luoyin and her son should move to the main residence.”

“That has already been discussed, and Disciple Luoyin has already rejected it. Her son is young, and should he fail to reach her level, separating them will only breed resentment in him. He would be an easy recruit for them rather than a target.” Ascendant Lingyao’s voice remained calm, and Li heard as the old man took another sip of tea. “Zhiyao plans to send Instructor Quan to teach and protect the boy, a move that should be sufficient paired with his mother’s skill.”

“Then I will continue tracking their movements. We will not allow those corrupted fools to take one of our own,” Li felt pride at his mother’s words and he quickly continued down the hall before someone could find him eavesdropping. He knew Zexian would be training in the main courtyard and he bounced as he walked to find his brother. 

He couldn’t wait to tell Yao about his marks.

***